My name is Kaila and I am a junior at Menasha High School. I will be seventeen on June twenty-fourth. I also live in Menasha with my parents, my brother, and my sister.
       My brother's name is Joel and he is fourteen. He is very obnoxious and annoying. He thinks that because he is in high school, he is God, and that irritates me. He also thinks he is a "lady magnet," but we just let him think that (he is not). He always has to know the answer and gives even when you weren't talking to him. On his good days though, he can be very nice and funny. He hates it when I call him short, but I am just getting it in before I am not the tallest anymore. I know I won't be for long.
       My sister's name is Jeana and she is eleven years old. She demands attention one hundred percent of the time. She is also very ditsy and clumsy. When she wants to be, she can be cute and funny. My friends like her because they only see her adorable side, but only my family knows what she really can be. What I hate about her is that she eats more than I do and doesn't gain a pound, and she has a six-pack from doing nothing. As you can see, I don't always get along with my siblings.
       My parent's names are Jeff and Jean. They have been married nineteen years come September. My mom is forty-six years old and all my friends like her because she is weird and loud. She is also very short (5'4"). I got her eyes, her short temper, and her creativity. My dad is fifty-one and he is very quiet around other people but quick to anger. I got dad's height (he is six feet tall and I am about 5'10"), and his ability to write poetry. I also got his creativity, and with both mom and dad's creative juices, I have become a very juicy person myself.
       My grandparents are all still living. My mom's parents' names are Herman and Carol, and they live in Darboy, a suburb of Appleton. My dad's parents' names are Loretta and Cliff; they live in Menasha about two miles from our house. All four of them are overflowing with stories from their earlier years. I enjoy spending time with them very much. My Grandpa Herman was recently my sponsor for my Confirmation (a religious sacrament). He is lots of fun to be around and can always make me laugh. My grandmas make me laugh less, but they tell me lots of stories and make me think. My other grandpa, Grandpa Cliff, is pretty quiet, but I know that although he might not express things, he loves me as much as I love him.
       I have lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles. Both my grandparents have five kids, and altogether I have sixteen cousins. The majority of my family lives in Wisconsin, including Menasha, Darboy, Neenah, and Greenleaf, and Milwaukee. But I also have family living in Phoenix, Arizona, Springfield, Illinois, Nashville, Tennessee, California, and all over Minnesota.
       When I was a little kid, I was not exactly an angel. I know I caused my parents as much problems as I caused them laughs. More than twice a week I was caught jumping on the bed, and I still have not lost my touch at concocting crazy stories.
       My mom told me one time about how I was talking to my grandpa after he had just had surgery and I asked him if he needed me to hold his "juice bag" (one of the bags that holds urine when the body cannot control it). Though I don't remember it, I believe that it came from my mouth.
       On another occasion, awoke in the middle of the night crying. I remember my parents coming in and asking me what was wrong, and I told them that there were bumblebees on my wall and they were going to hurt me. I now know that what I saw was little spots because I was dizzy and only half awake.
       I also used to do crazy little things that made my parents angry. I was a TV-addict and, after my parents sent me to bed, I would get up and sneak out quietly to lie in the hallway. I would pretend I was asleep, but I would lie there and listen to the TV. Yes, I was an interesting child.
       As I said, I will be seventeen in June. I have many hobbies, including writing stories, reading, sleeping, listening to music, and spending time on my own. I often wonder what is would be like to live during different time periods. I would have liked to meet some of the people who made the world what it is today.
       I am very opinionated, but I am very quiet, and only the people closest to me hear it. I am short-tempered, humorous, imaginative, pessimistic, and a total feminist. I enjoy defending my point quietly and showing that girls are the strongest race, something I believed since I was a girl.
       Some of the basics are that my favorite colors are sea green and cerulean blue. My favorite author is Juliet Marillier, so obviously my favorite books are the trilogy she wrote. Favorite movies are "The Italian Job," "Never Been Kissed," "Ever After," "Pirates of the Caribbean," and, my ultimate favorite, "Sleeping Beauty." My favorite TV shows are "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "I Love Lucy," and "Whose Line is it Anyway."
       My favorite food is lefse, a Norwegian food, which is where some of my heritage comes from. It is Norwegian potato, and it is flat and round, much resembling a tortilla shell. You put butter and sugar on it and then you roll it up and eat it. It's very good, and it doesn't taste anything like potatoes.
       I usually strive to be the best I can be, and although I slack off occasionally, I have been successful for the most part. However, I have lately been overwhelmed with the pressure of all the things that go with being close to college. I am afraid that I will not choose the right profession and I will forever hate my job.
       I have been thinking, and the results I came up with are thus; I need creativity in my job, and I really like helping others, especially children. So I decided I want to further my education at the University of Wisconsin Steven's Point and try to be a teacher. Of course, at this point, I am still open to possibilities, but I really enjoy spending time with elementary schoolers.
       I have also wanted to be a writer. I love to write my own stories, little stories that I can drain my creative juices on. To be a writer would also satisfy my need for being creative and spending time with little kids. I may not be able to see them before me, but I know that with each story I could publish, I could touch a child's heart. That is what I want.
       I always welcome the possibility at having a new friend. I work at the municipal pool in Menasha, and I meet a lot of new people there. I also do a lot of community service and I meet a lot of new people then too.
       My best friends are Maureen and Trevor. Maureen is sixteen until September and Trevor just turned seventeen. They both are very funny and I enjoy spending time with them. When Trevor and I are together, I usually laugh at him, but when Maureen and I are together, she usually laughs at me. I have known Maureen since third grade and I have known Trevor since first, so we go back a long time.
       Those two are my closest friends, but I have a lot of other best friends. Many are in my grade, a few are a year younger than me, and a few are a year older than me. I like high school because you can make friends rather easily, contrary to the cliques. Though I admit I feel like I am part of a clique, mine is very open to new friends coming in. Many of the friends I have now were my friends since third grade. But many have not been. In sixth grade, I never would have dreamt that at my age I could be a friend to kids from age three to adults to age ninety-eight. To me now, it is still unbelievable.
       As I said, my school is a pretty interesting place. Socially, it is very hard to get past the idea of cliques and private groups, but there are those who know how to get past the barriers.
       But physically, my school is a place where you, if you try, can do whatever you want to. Currently, my fun classes include band and Japanese. Japanese is a fun class and I have liked it for the most part since when I started it in first grade. Band is a different situation. Though I like the fact that many of my friends are in band, I despise our band director. I'll save the details. However, he has done good things for us. He applied for many of the big parades, including Macy's and the Rose Bowl Parade. We have gotten many good things from our enthusiasm, including being invited to France to perform for the sixtieth anniversary of the Normandy Invasion. Two years ago, we went to New Orleans to perform there, and now we are playing with the idea of going to Florida and the Bahamas next year, which I hope we decide on because that would be loads of fun. I hope we do it because I have not yet been able to go on any trips.
       Besides classroom work, I am involved in other extracurricular activities. The past three years I have been a competitor on the swim team at Menasha High School. Having been in swimming lessons since I was three months old, I love being in the water. My favorite even is the five hundred yard freestyle, and I hate the breaststroke. But I love my team and I look forward to next year.
       I also am an officer in Key Club, otherwise known as Kiwanis. Key Club is an organization of high schoolers who get together and plan activities for community service. I enjoy it very much. We have done many things, including blood drives, rose deliveries, hayrides, mini golfing tournaments, and lots more. I know it will help me in the future. I may not know exactly how, but having three hundred hours of community service, I know it will look good almost everywhere I write it (college, scholarship, and job applications).
       Besides all that, I am a member of the technical crew at MHS. I help build the sets for the plays the high school players put on. While I have been in high school, we did the following plays; "Anne Frank," "Grease," "Charley's Aunt," "Kiss Me Kate," "Rumors," and "The Sound of Music." My favorite was "Rumors." It was about a group of people who get together at Charley's house for his anniversary, except that he is lying in his room with a bullet hole in his ear and his wife is nowhere to be found. The group has to overcome many problems, including the rumors that spread through the group, and the worst being a visit from the police. It was very funny and had many hilarious moments.
       Besides extracurricular stuff, I have done many other things through school. In April, I attended Prom, my first ever formal dance. Prom is a very popular, very important dance held in one way or another at nearly every high school in America. It is where juniors and seniors can invite someone of the opposite sex to go with them to a large, decorative, beautiful dance. Freshman and sophomores cannot go unless a junior or senior invites them. Before Prom some couples enter their names and the rest of the people going vote on Prom King, Queen, and Court. I had a blast and I look forward to next year's.